NetApp uses cookies to improve and customise your online experience.

NetApp uses cookies to improve and customise your online experience.

In order to tailor our communications with you to make sure that we are addressing your specific needs and not overhwelming you with unwanted information, we use cookies to handle propensity management. A cookie is a piece of information that is stored on your computer's hard drive by your web browser.

In order to disable the cookies, you must tick the box below and explicitly decline consent.

Disable my cookies.

Please view our Privacy Policy for more details about how we use cookies.

National Ignition Facility (NIF)

Technical Case Study

Thank You

Thank You. A link to this asset has been sent to the email address you provided. Resubmit

Privacy

Privacy

Science fiction is becoming reality at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where researchers are closing in on harnessing the power of thermonuclear fusion. Using hydrogen atoms and a laser 100 times more energetic than any other laser in the world, NIF scientists can create conditions on Earth that once existed only in the center of the stars.

To create thermonuclear fusion, the energy of 192 separate laser beams is focused to fuse together hydrogen atoms, producing helium and a massive amount of energy. For decades, fusion had been considered the stuff of science fiction, but in early 2014, NIF made headlines when it formally announced that record amounts of energy had been created through fusion.

Fusion is just one of many experiments taking place at NIF, which was built to sustain three missions: nuclear stockpile stewardship, energy science, and “basic” sciences such as experimental astronomy and astrophysics. Massive quantities of data are essential to the success of these experiments, from experimental design to experiment execution and analysis.

By having a cloud with essentially infinitely scalable storage, we can achieve our goal of supporting nonstop science for our nation.

Tim FrazierChief Information Officer, NIF

Before the laser can ever be fired, NIF’s computer control system must coordinate more than 60,000 control points, including motorized mirrors and lenses, energy and power sensors, video cameras, laser amplifiers, pulse power, and diagnostic instruments. That’s 60,000 parameters that must be set with high precision.

With a private cloud based on NetApp running clustered Data ONTAP, NIF has reduced planned and unplanned downtime, reclaiming up to 60 hours of downtime per year for science and preventing costly delays. “We’re a unique facility, so if there’s a problem, we delay schedules that were made years in advance. Clustered Data ONTAP gives us the ability to add compute capacity for scientists when they need it and work on portions of our infrastructure without any disruption to workload,” says Frazier.

The performance and reliability of its IT infrastructure are enabling NIF to operate at the speed of light in pursuit of discoveries that will enhance national security and also increase our knowledge of the universe and solve some of the world’s most critical challenges. As NIF continues to pursue the goal of creating controlled thermonuclear ignition in a laboratory, scientists aren’t the only ones getting excited.

“For me, it’s all about working on something that can make a difference to our nation and also our civilization—on a global scale,” says Frazier. “NetApp has been a part of the NIF story since the beginning and understands the importance of our mission.”

About this Customer

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is home to a laser that is over 100 times more energetic than any previous laser system. Scientists at the Livermore, California facility are working on improving our national security, understanding the universe, and developing the science for providing renewable energy sources for the future.